


It's Got Groove, It's Got Meaning

by redandglenda



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grease, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Outdoor Sex, Public Sex, Sex on a Car, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 01:11:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11243190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redandglenda/pseuds/redandglenda
Summary: The Grease AU nobody asked for. In which Leonard is Kenickie, Jim is Rizzo, Uhura is Danny, and Spock is Sandy.Leonard is dealing with his father's illness very badly. Feelings are messy and hard to deal with at the best of times, let alone in high school when his crush (Jim) seems to only be interested in someone else (Spock). Thank goodness he has his gang, the S-Fleets, there to get him through it.





	It's Got Groove, It's Got Meaning

Leonard was a pretty confident guy. In his looks, in his talents, in what he had to offer the world. The thing he was probably most talented at was cars. He was good at fixing cars because he took the time to figure out what really made them tick. Some days it felt like they were speaking to him, telling him what was wrong so that he could make them better. His best friend, Uhura, sometimes called him Doc, because he was like a doctor to the old broken down cars they found, restored, and made better than new.  
  
He was the best in their crew, the S-Fleets, at figuring out how to fix a broken car, though Uhura was definitely the best at driving them, which made her the de facto leader of their group. The other guys all had their own specialities though: Scotty was the best at souping up the engines, Hikaru could get the best deals for car parts from chop shops, and when that didn’t work, Pavel was the best at boosting the parts they needed. Leonard still couldn’t quite believe they got high school credit for automobile class when all they did was hang around and do what they love.  
  
Leonard wasn’t great at the rest of school. Or, well, he had been, but when his dad got sick, he stopped trying. Everything just seemed trivial when his father, his hero, became a crippled husk of the man he used to be. If that was where they were all headed, what was the point of trying? What was the point of working hard to get into college to then do more work, to get a job to do more goddamn work? It never stopped. And then you were dead.  
  
Leonard’s mom was too busy at home taking care of his dying dad to notice that Leonard barely scraped through his junior year, and now about to start his senior year, Leonard barely remembered what it was like to try at school. He was used to the daily routine of skipping classes, turning up only for tests he absolutely couldn’t miss, and spending his time in auto shop, tinkering with cars until school let out and the S-Fleets could go somewhere, anywhere, else.  
  
In auto shop, Leonard could work on problems that had a solution. Car is having trouble shifting gears? Fix the drive shaft. Car is overheating? Fix the radiator. It was one of the reasons he used to like math: all the math problems had neat solutions. No doctors shaking their heads and saying they just didn’t know. No trying everything, and still nothing working. In math, and in cars, something always worked. It might take time to get to that solution, but there always was one. And if fixing the problem took him all day and into the night, well, it’s not like anyone would miss him at home.  
  
So Leonard had his routine. He had his fixable problems. He was ready for senior year to begin and to have everything be the same.  
  
That was, of course, when Uhura turned up on the first day of school and announced that she had fallen in love over the summer. And suddenly everything changed.  
  
***  
  
“Don’t give me that look, Doc, c’mon,” Uhura said.  
  
Leonard just rolled his eyes harder. “You met a boy crazy for you. At the beach. And had a summer fling. How cliché.”  
  
All of a sudden a dreamy look came into Uhura’s eyes. Leonard wouldn’t have believed it had happened if he hadn’t seen it himself. Uhura. S-Fleets co-founder and leader, his bro. In love. “It just happened so fast. I saved his life. He nearly drowned.”  
  
“Did you get very far?,” Hikaru drawled, not looking up from where he was tightening the bolts on a carburetor, obviously not all that interested. Leonard was glad he wasn’t the only one.  
  
“I took him bowling at the arcade, and we made out under the dock,” Uhura said, smirking.  
  
The guys all groaned, and Scotty threw a spare socket at her. None of them had ever been shy about telling the others of their conquests, but Leonard would bet that a good percentage of each of the S-Fleets’ stories were embellished.  
  
“You don’t have to brag,” Scotty said, good-naturedly.  
  
“He was good,” she said grinning, never one to back down from a challenge.  
  
“Good?” Pavel asked, raising his eyebrows.  
  
“You know what I mean,” Uhura’s smirk deepened.  
  
Leonard huffed and flicked the rag he was using to clean engine grease off his hands at Pavel’s head. “Don’t encourage her.”  
  
“Did he put up a fight?” Pavel asked, winking at Leonard.  
  
“No,” Uhura said, “He was sweet. Just turned 18. . .”  
  
Leonard let her voice wash over him as he walked over to the sink and started scrubbing at his skin with the back of a sponge. The dynamic of the group was shifting, he could feel it, and he didn’t like it. He scrubbed harder, barely noticing the pain. He needed to get out of here, away from all the questions about Uhura’s fling.  
  
He toweled off his hands briskly, shrugged into his leather S-Fleets jacket, and walked out of the auto shop. Hikaru’s concerned face briefly registered with Leonard, but he didn’t have the energy to deal with someone else’s feelings right now. Shop was supposed to be a place where he didn’t have to think about his feelings, and could ignore the world, but that was failing miserably today.  
  
Leonard didn’t get far before he heard a voice yell, “Hey,” and Leonard was all set to tell the person to fuck off when he registered whose voice it was. And actually, yes, this was exactly what he needed.  
  
“Skipping class, Jim?” Leonard asked. He squinted up at Jim where he was lounging on the bleachers, smoking. He was sprawled over three levels, elbows on one, ass on another, and feet propped on a third, looking like a goddamn model.  
  
“You know it. Come up here,” Jim said, head tilted invitingly. Leonard knew that despite Jim’s flippant remark, he actually didn’t skip much school, but Leonard didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to missing school, so didn’t say anything.  
  
Leonard climbed up the bleachers to Jim and took the cigarette out of Jim’s mouth before sitting down next to Jim. “These’ll kill ya,” he said before taking a drag.  
  
Jim grinned at him, letting the cigarette theft go without comment. “Who are you running from?” he asked.  
  
Leonard grunted. “I wasn’t running.”  
  
“You sure came out of auto shop fast,” Jim pressed. He dropped open his bent legs so that one of his knees rested lightly on Leonard’s thigh.  
  
“Uhura wouldn’t shut up about this guy she had a fling over the summer with,” Leonard said, looking up Jim’s body from the offending knee.  
  
“Sounds like a drag,” Jim said, smiling. “Wanna do something else instead?”  
  
Leonard let his gaze flick down from Jim’s warm, crinkled eyes to his pouty lips. “Yeah,” he said.  
  
Leonard lifted himself up and flipped over to drape himself over Jim, nestled between Jim’s spread thighs. He braced one hand by Jim’s elbow and ran the other one slowly up Jim’s sun-warmed jeans, enjoying the feel of Jim’s quad tensing under his hand.  
  
The two of them had been fooling around for two years now, ever since sophomore year when Jim had turned up to school in a beautifully restored vintage 1938 Alfa Romeo convertible of his dad’s, finally passed down to Jim on his 16th birthday. Leonard had seen the car and popped a seriously inconvenient boner – well, inconvenient until he noticed Jim’s hot gaze locked on him. Leonard had pressed Jim against the convertible and they had both gotten so into the kissing that they toppled into the back seat and just kept going.  
  
Jim moaned happily into Leonard’s mouth as Leonard’s wandering hand found Jim’s nipple and tugged hard.  
  
Jim wrapped one leg around Leonard’s hips, and pulled him closer. Jim’s torso was suspended between the two bleacher seats, so he wasn’t able to get the leverage he obviously wanted.  
  
Instead of letting him get frustrated and then having him try some undoubtedly dangerous repositioning of their already precarious high up perch, Leonard took pity on Jim and rocked his hips firmly down.  
  
“Yes,” Jim said lowly. “Come on, Bones, put that boner to good use.”  
  
Leonard groaned, as he always did when Jim brought up the reason why he had gifted the stupid nickname of ‘Bones’ to Leonard. He didn’t mind when Jim called him it, and if he was being honest with himself, he liked it a lot that Jim had a nickname for him and no one else. But, being reminded of his 16 year old boner for Jim’s car was a bit much.  
  
Jim laughed, delighted as he always was to get a rise out of Leonard.  
  
“Brat,” Leonard growled. He slammed his lips against Jim’s hard enough to make him yelp, and thankfully make him shut up.  
  
Their tongues battled against each other slickly for long moments, neither of them wanting to cede to the other. Jim’s tongue sliding wetly up to stroke the roof of Leonard’s mouth, only to be firmly pushed back so that Leonard’s tongue could flick quickly in and out of Jim’s mouth, making Jim moan and try to chase Leonard’s tongue each time.  
  
They could easily spend hours making out and refusing to let the other take charge, but Jim put an end to it this time by deftly taking Leonard’s cock out of his jeans.  
  
Leonard gasped into Jim’s mouth, and Jim licked into his now slack mouth in triumph. He hadn’t been expecting Jim to whip his cock out on the bleachers, but then again, this was Jim. Public nudity didn’t faze him in the slightest.  
  
With that thought in mind, Leonard reached between them to return the favour and free Jim’s silky hot cock. He shifted his stance, bracing his feet along the bleachers below to line up their cocks and then nudged Jim’s hand aside to take both of their cocks in his hand.  
  
It was too dry with only the sweat of their hands and precome to slick the way, but this way he could feel Jim’s cock twitching and pulsing against his, which was infinitely better than just jerking each other off.  
  
As he tugged at their cocks, Leonard bit and sucked bruise after bruise into Jim’s neck. And the sounds Jim made as he shuddered beneath Leonard were heaven.  
  
Leonard didn’t want it to ever stop. If it stopped, he’d have to go back to worrying about losing his best friend to the lure of foreign dick, about not having the auto shop be a place of solace any more, about how he spent too much time thinking about Jim when they were only fuck buddies.  
  
Before he could start thinking anything, Jim’s hand joined Leonard’s around their cocks. Leonard continued to work the shafts and Jim’s clever wet thumb flicked lightly at Leonard’s slit until he came with a shout.  
  
Leonard sunk his teeth into the tendon on Jim’s neck and continued to work Jim’s cock, now using his own come to slick the way. It only took three strokes before Jim shuddered beneath him and came, panting against Leonard’s temple.  
  
They heaved a few breaths together before Leonard rolled off Jim and gingerly stuffed his cock back into his jeans. This was always the awkward part. No matter how many times they fucked, afterwards Leonard never knew what to say, and Jim always seemed so confident and at ease. It was baffling. Perplexing. Annoying.  
  
Beside him, Jim had tucked himself away and was giving Leonard an odd look. “Really?” he asked.  
  
“Really, what?” Leonard said gruffly.  
  
“Really, you’re already back to scowling?” Jim said, eyebrows raised high.  
  
Sometimes it felt like Jim was laughing at him. At his inability to handle the fuck buddy situation correctly. At his awkwardness. So Leonard did what he always did, he blustered about and made a strategic retreat.  
  
Jim called after him, still lounging on the bleachers like a model, damn him, “I heard his name is Spock!”  
  
***  
  
Suddenly Spock was everywhere. He wasn’t just the strange foreign kid who Uhura banged. He was at their school. He was in Leonard’s English class. He was having lunch with Jim and his friends: Gaila and Ben. He was at the drive-in with Uhura when she was supposed to be there with the S-Fleets. It was like he was in every damn place Leonard looked.  
  
He had an old-fashioned hair cut, and weird ears, and broad shoulders, and he was whip smart, and damn it all, Leonard could see what Uhura saw in him.  
  
Uhura continued to have her dramas with Spock, miscommunications and differences in cultures and way more sex than was probably advisable, and she relayed everything to the S-Fleets over cars at school and milkshakes at the diner. Leonard wasn’t sure when they had all become so damn chatty, but as long as he kept getting to have sex with Jim to distract himself when it got to be too much, he could take it.  
  
He pressed Jim up against his locker for a drawn out wet and sloppy kiss, leaving his lips buzzing pleasantly.  
  
He tugged Jim into the empty janitor closet to blow him between classes, letting Jim fuck his mouth till he knows he’ll be hoarse for hours after.  
  
He fucked Jim hard in the handicapped bathroom at the diner, offering his forearm to Jim to bite down on so he wouldn’t give them away with his loud moans.  
  
And in between, he fixed Jim’s car when it needed a tune up, he went driving with Jim down by the water, he spent lazy afternoon’s smoking at the top of the bleachers with Jim.  
  
He even went to the school’s winter production of My Fair Lady to see Jim play Henry Higgins. Jim had mentioned it to Leonard in passing a few weeks before, as if Leonard hadn’t already known Jim was playing the lead role.  
  
When Leonard had said he would “try to stop by” the show, Jim had grinned soft and happy, and Leonard’s heart made a funny skip which he refused to think about.  
  
***  
  
Christmas break happened, and the less said about the forced time at home Leonard had to endure, the better. He couldn’t take seeing his dad so broken, and he couldn’t take seeing the blatant worry in his mother’s eyes for both him and his dad. He couldn’t take not having a daily excuse to see Jim. He even missed hearing Uhura gush about Spock, which was the final nail in his pathetic and lonely coffin.  
  
He came back to school in January, actually excited to be there for the first time in months. He’d even get up the energy to go to all his classes if it meant not spending full days trapped in a stuffy house with his mother’s grief and his father’s pain and his own failure.  
  
His new resolve lasted through third period, when he overheard Ben and Gaila talking about a sleepover they had with Jim and Spock over the Christmas break.  
  
“I mean, he’s lousy with virginity, but he’s alright, I guess,” Gaila was saying. And, what? That’s not the story Uhura had been telling the S-Fleets.  
  
“Yeah, he’s kind of sweet, really,” Ben said. “Naive. I can’t believe he didn’t know what Jim meant when he –”  
  
“I know!” Gaila shrieked, cutting Ben off.  
  
When Jim what? A hot flash of jealousy coursed through Leonard and he anxiously waited to hear if they’d say anything more.  
  
Ben and Gaila giggled a moment longer until their teacher called them to attention, and any chance Leonard had of figuring out exactly what happened was lost.  
  
Leonard sat there, just processing, for a moment. Jim had a reputation around the school for being a slut, but Leonard had never seen any proof. And he was kind of with Leonard, right? So he probably wasn’t doing anything nasty with Spock. Besides, Uhura would cut him, and Jim was rightly terrified of her, so Leonard needed to get a grip.  
  
He made it through the class, and decided that three classes actually attended was enough for the day. He ducked out towards the school gardener’s shed, knowing that this period the bleachers were being used by footballers and the auto shop was actually being used for a class.  
  
The door squeaked as Leonard opened it, as it always did, and the sun lit up a slice of the dark interior, illuminating a blonde head, ducked over a notebook.  
  
Jim’s head snapped up quickly, a charming grin in place, but when he saw it was Leonard, it melted into a real smile. “Bones!” he exclaimed.  
  
“What are you doing here?” Leonard asked, as he shouldered into the small shed.  
  
“What are _you_ doing here?” Jim parroted back as Leonard settled down opposite him. “Or rather, why weren’t you here earlier? This is your usual second period spot.”  
  
Leonard was bemused. He hadn’t been aware Jim knew his routine so well.  
  
“Attempted history class today,” Leonard said, and winced at the memory of the jealousy he’d felt.  
  
Jim caught his wince and asked, “Was it that bad?”  
  
“Nah,” Leonard sighed. “Just, y’know. . .” He trailed off, hoping Jim would pick up the conversation and turn it to something better, like he usually did. When had Leonard become so bad at having conversations? He hadn’t used to have to rely on Jim’s ability to carry conversations. Back in sophomore year they had had a great rhythm of give and take, and their banter could have easily filled hours.  
  
“Yeah, coming back from Christmas sucks, you’re telling me,” Jim said easily. “Did you know we had an essay due in English today? The first day back! Mr. Saporta is a sadist.”  
  
“Did we?” Leonard asked. He wasn’t concerned with having missed an assignment, but wanted Jim to keep talking.  
  
“Yeah, it was on Crime and Punishment. Which, let me tell you, was a punishment to have to read. You didn’t miss out,” Jim said. He lit a cigarette and after taking a drag offered it to Leonard.  
  
Leonard waved it away. “Do we have any tests coming up?”  
  
“I’ll let you know when, like I always do,” Jim said.  
  
That was another thing. When had Leonard started relying on Jim to remind him of tests he couldn’t miss if he wanted to pass? When had Jim become so integral to his survival? Leonard honestly couldn’t remember when he had stopped paying attention to school and started solely relying on Jim.  
  
“Speaking of, we have a math test next week,” Jim continued, blissfully unaware of Leonard’s entire world rearranging from Jim being a guy he fucked on the regular to being the only person getting Leonard through the hell of high school.  
  
“What’s the topic?” Leonard asked. The conversation felt like it was taking place far away from Leonard’s body.  
  
“I’ve got some notes if you want?” Jim rustled around in his bag, and Leonard distantly watched the delicate bones in Jim’s wrist move.  
  
Jim thrust the notes at Leonard and Leonard managed to grab them and mutter, “Thanks.”  
  
“No problem.” Jim squinted at him, then asked, “You okay, man?”  
  
“Yeah,” Leonard said quickly, “Just tired.”  
  
Jim chuckled. “Attending three full classes can take it out of you.”  
  
Leonard attempted a smile. It felt weird on his face.  
  
“On that note,” Jim said as he stood up, “It’s time for me to head back.”  
  
Jim pulled the door open and the sudden light made Leonard flinch back.  
  
When the door closed after Jim, Leonard settled in to read Jim’s notes. He’d give them back to Jim tomorrow. He was surprised to realise he knew exactly when Jim would be at the library studying on a Tuesday, and the thought warmed him a bit. He wasn’t as much of a failure as a friend, and human being, as he thought.  
  
***  
  
Leonard walked into the library on Tuesday during 6th period to return Jim’s notes, and was surprised to see Spock sitting with Jim. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised. Spock had become a firm fixture in Jim’s group of friends, but probably due to Leonard never really being _in_ school, he didn’t see them together much.  
  
Spock was leaning into Jim’s space to point to something that they were both working on. As Leonard watched, Jim ducked his head to catch Spock’s eyes and they grinned at each other.  
  
And Leonard knew that Jim was a flirt. He’d heard all of the stories about Jim and his many conquests, and knew that just because he fucked Jim didn’t mean he had any claim on him, but seeing Jim flirt in front of him was very different from hearing about it happening. Leonard decidedly didn’t like it. Especially after his realisation yesterday about how big a part of his life Jim was.  
  
Jim’s fingers brushed Spock’s as they both reached for the same pen, and Jim smiled as bright as the sun at something Spock said.  
  
Leonard had had enough. He stomped towards their table and slammed Jim’s notes down. Both Jim and Spock whipped their heads up to stare at him. Leonard took a shallow breath, clenched his now empty fists, and stormed out of the library.  
  
He didn’t realise how tightly his fists had been clenched until he got all the way across campus to the auto shop and felt like he could finally breathe again. He looked down dispassionately at the white half circles on his palms from his nails biting into them.  
  
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the library?” HIkaru asked.  
  
Leonard whirled around, searching out his friend. He had thought he was alone, but now he could see Hikaru’s legs sticking out from under a car.  
  
“Yeah,” Leonard said shortly. He was. If he weren’t such an idiot who couldn’t handle seeing his friend – his _fuck buddy_ flirting with someone else.  
  
“Want to help me? I could use an extra set of hands,” Hikaru offered. His voice sounded oddly far away with the guts of the car separating them.  
  
“Yeah,” Leonard repeated, more firmly now, and he walked over to the car Hikaru was working on.  
  
“The fuel injector is rusted to hell, so I’m having trouble getting it out,” Hikaru said.  
  
Leonard leaned over the car, and could immediately see the problem. His brain switched into gear and he started to work out how to fix it, all thoughts of Jim and Spock fading for now.  
  
***  
  
Now that he had seen it, Leonard continued to see Jim and Spock together everywhere. At the movies, at football games, at the diner. Flirting, flirting, flirting.  
  
Leonard wanted so badly to ask Uhura about it. See if she knew what was going on, if she was okay with it. But he didn’t know how. He and Uhura had been best friends since elementary school, and they’d never had trouble talking about anything, but ever since Spock (fucking _Spock_ ) had arrived, Uhura had been a mystery to him. She’d had boyfriends and girlfriends before, but this was different. _She_ was different. She was still his best friend, and the biggest badass he knew, but their connection was gone.  
  
He stared at her in auto shop, watching as she and Scotty worked on a car’s hydraulics, and felt so stupidly alone. He couldn’t remember the last time they had really talked, not just exchanged macho banter about souping up their cars to make them into pussy wagons and how much action they’d get.  
  
In the back of Leonard’s mind, he knew this disconnection was worrying, but, as with most things in his life lately, he just couldn’t bring himself to care. He kept filing down a stubborn part so that it would fit properly into the engine block.  
  
Frankly the only thing Leonard cared about lately was Jim, and that sure wasn’t healthy. After all, Jim obviously didn’t feel the same as he did or else he wouldn’t be flirting up a storm with Spock. And other people, if rumours were to be believed.  
  
The only thing to do was to push Jim away. Stop relying on sex with him to bring him back to himself when he needed to feel something. Stop using his conversational skills to fill the awful silence in his head with something other than negative thoughts. Stop seeing him all together. Let Jim slut it up with Spock, or whoever else, for all he cared.  
  
And Leonard would try. He would try to talk to Uhura again, and he’d try to be okay with the way Spock’s presence changed the whole dynamic of the S-Fleets.  
  
This newfound ambition was tested much too quickly, as only half an hour later, Pavel called out, “Diner after school, yes?”  
  
Scotty, Hikaru, and Uhura all replied in the affirmative, and Leonard forced himself to grit out, “I’m in.”  
  
It was just the diner. It couldn’t be that bad.  
  
***  
  
It was that bad. Jim was there. With Spock. Cuddling Spock, apparently, the two of them squeezed close in a booth.  
  
Leonard almost turned around right away but Scotty was at his back and asked, “Y’alright, Doc?” He put a hand on Leonard’s shoulder and steered him to Jim’s booth.  
  
Leonard nodded quickly, and made sure to seat himself as far from Jim as he could get in the stupidly tiny booths. He saw Jim trying to catch his eye, but ignored it by focusing on the menu in front of him. A pretty weak excuse if ever there were one considering how often they all came here.  
  
He hadn’t seen Jim since the day in the library. It seemed to him like it had been weeks, but really it had just been a few days. It seemed only right that a few Jim-less days feel like longer. God, he was pathetic.  
  
He continued to ignore Jim’s attempts at drawing him into the conversation, but he did make an effort to talk with Hikaru and Scotty, who were sitting closest to him, which he was proud of himself for.  
  
As soon as everyone started making noises about leaving, Leonard jumped up and practically ran for the door. He heard Jim call after him, but he pretended he didn’t notice and kept going.  
  
Hikaru caught up with him down the block, and said, a bit breathlessly, “Scotty was going to come, but you’re too fast. We should probably all quit smoking.”  
  
“I always say,” Leonard said.  
  
Hikaru rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and then right after you smoke a cigarette.”  
  
“Never a whole one,” Leonard protested. It was a constant source of amusement to his friends that Leonard refused to buy cigarettes and firmly denied smoking, but was always bumming off other people.  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Hikaru said, smiling.  
  
They walked in companionable silence for a while, Leonard kicking at rocks as he went.  
  
“So,” Hikaru drew out the word. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you and Jim or am I going to have to guess?”  
  
Leonard internally cursed a blue streak. Hikaru was too damn perceptive for his own good. He was sure Scotty knew something was up, and Pavel probably suspected something, but neither would have known that it was Jim, specifically, and not just Leonard being moody in general (moody was Scotty’s word).  
  
“It’s nothing. We’re fine,” Leonard said as firmly as he could.  
  
“So you aren’t avoiding him?” Hikaru asked lightly.  
  
“Nope,” Leonard mimicked his tone.  
  
“Because Ben said Jim has been moping,” Hikaru said.  
  
“Oh, _Ben_ says that, does he? During all your long afternoon chats,” Leonard said in a mocking tone. Two could play this game, Hikaru.  
  
Hikaru glared at Leonard out of the corner of his eye. “Yes, he did. And he’s right, Doc, I’ve seen it. What did the kid do?”  
  
Damn, he’d been hoping to divert Hikaru with his crush on Ben, but no luck. “The kid did nothing. The kid is also 18, so y’know. Not a kid.”  
  
Hikaru elbowed Leonard in the ribs and said, “Quit trying to distract. I know you too well for that to work.”  
  
Leonard groaned loudly. “It really is nothing, just figured I should back off a bit.”  
  
Hikaru gave him a blank look. “Why?”  
  
“Well, him and Spock,” Leonard began.  
  
Hikaru barked out a laugh. “Doc, there is _no_ Jim and Spock. They’re just friends.”  
  
“You haven’t seen them like I have, Hikaru,” Leonard said. He wasn’t going to let Hikaru talk him back into hanging out with Jim. Leonard needed the distance to get his feelings in order, because even if Jim and Spock weren’t fucking, Jim might be fucking someone else, or he might not be, but he certainly didn’t feel the same as Leonard. That was a fact. Jim was a slut, a generous one, but a slut nonetheless. Leonard was a desperate sad sack who took advantage of too nice people. Facts.  
  
“But –” Hikaru tried again.  
  
Leonard cut him off again with a fact. “Everyone heard that Jim was at the clinic last week. I don’t need to be exposing myself to his chlamydia.”  
  
“Chlamydia? C’mon, Doc, you know better than to trust rumours,” Hikaru said, sounding a bit shocked.  
  
“Pavel saw him there,” Leonard said, firmly. He knew Hikaru wouldn’t say anything against Pavel, since they all treated him like a little brother. He wasn’t lying about Pavel seeing Jim there either.  
  
Leonard glanced over at Hikaru to see his reaction to the news.  
  
Hikaru pursed his lips in deep thought. “Well,” he said slowly, “I guess that’s true then.”  
  
They were quiet for a few breaths until Hikaru started again, “But that doesn’t mean – ”  
  
“Just stop, please, Hikaru,” Leonard said, softly.  
  
Hikaru took a deep breath as if he were gearing up for another volley, but he looked over at Leonard and must have seen something in his face, because he just let out his breath on a long sigh.  
  
They walked in silence the rest of the way to Hikaru’s house, and then Leonard continued home alone.  
  
***  
  
Leonard managed to avoid Jim for a week, but it got harder and harder. The problem was that Jim knew his schedule so well. Not just his school schedule, but his own personal avoiding-school schedule.  
  
All the spots Jim knew were out. No auto shop, no gardener’s shed, no bleachers. Leonard toyed with the idea of going to the library, surely the last place Jim would look, but decided that was too risky. He was in his car, almost to school, one morning when he decided he just couldn’t face it, and took a left instead of the right he should have taken.  
  
He drove and drove, not really planning where he wanted to go, until he stopped at Thunder Road. This track had seen so many car races over the years, some official, but most not, and Leonard had gone with his dad to every one when he was a kid. He and his dad would talk about the cars, about what you could tell about the engine from the way it sounded, about why certain tires were used on roads like this, about the cons of souping up an engine, about the best ways to do it.  
  
Leonard’s father wasn’t a talkative man, but he had loved cars, and loved to talk about them. That had been the main way Leonard and he bonded as Leonard grew up, and was something Leonard hadn’t been able to do with him for the last two years as his father slowly faded away, his zest for life and cars fading with him.  
  
Leonard climbed out of his car, and sat gingerly on the hood with one knee drawn to his chest. The car was the one he helped his father pick out on Leonard’s 14th birthday. It didn’t matter that when they bought it Leonard had been too young to drive, his dad had bought it to teach Leonard how to keep a car cherry together, and then had officially given it to him on the day he turned 16. They had restored classic cars together since Leonard could walk, but this was the first, and only, new car his father had bought. It was a 1953 Corvette stingray convertible, and it was gorgeous.  
  
When Leonard felt sentimental, he thought that the car’s shade of blue matched Jim’s eyes perfectly, but right now his mind was too filled up with his dad for thoughts of Jim.  
  
God, he _missed_ his dad. He was still alive, but so weak that it barely seemed he was there. Just a shadow wearing his dad’s face. None of that energy and passion Leonard had always admired.  
  
He was sure he would have been able to talk to his dad about what was going on with him and Jim. He probably would have had to use car parts as metaphors to discuss it so that his dad would feel comfortable, but even that would have been welcome now. What Leonard wouldn’t give for his dad to clumsily talk about how the connector between the lower radiator hose had to be properly maintained so that it would join easily with the radiator or else the radiator wouldn’t function properly. That it took all parts communicating and working together for the car to work.  
  
And Jim was probably the lower radiator hose and he was probably supposed to be the radiator and the connector was probably them talking to each other instead of avoiding one another, but really it felt like his sanity was the lower radiator hose and the connector was his dad, and without his dad he was just lost. If his dad was here, _really_ here and not dying slowly, maybe Leonard could have coped with Spock always being around Jim, with Jim getting chlamydia from fucking someone else, with all of it.  
  
But he wasn’t. And Leonard was alone.  
  
Leonard sat, breathing deeply, with his loneliness feeling like a balloon, slowly expanding inside his head till it pushed anything else out.  
  
The smell of smoke slowly drew Leonard out of his ruminations, and he glanced up. He hadn’t realised he had looked down, too lost in his memories, but at some point he had drawn up his other knee and rested his forehead on them, curled into a tight ball on the hood of his car.  
  
He was surprised, and yet somehow not at all surprised, to see Jim there.  
  
Jim was standing a few yards away from Leonard’s car. He was holding himself strangely, with his shoulders drawn up and arms crossed, cigarette clamped between his tightly drawn lips. Leonard had never seen him look so small.  
  
They regarded each other each other silently for long moments, surrounded by the expanse of quiet on Thunder Road. There wasn’t even the sound of birds or nearby cars. It was just quiet.  
  
When Jim’s cigarette was almost out, he plucked it from his lips and held it out to Leonard.  
  
Leonard cautiously reached out and took it from him when Jim came close enough to let him, making sure to not let their fingers brush. It was hard, when Jim was there looking somehow defiant and desperately unhappy all at once, not to touch him. Not to wrap his hand around Jim’s wrist and tug him over to sit on the hood with him. Especially now that the loneliness in his head that had felt so overwhelming just minutes ago felt so much smaller now.  
  
Jim shuffled back to where he had been standing before and looked away, not out at Thunder Road like Leonard had been doing, but down at his feet. The submissive posture looked wrong on Jim, and Leonard hated it.  
  
“It’s been strange actually getting to finish my cigarettes,” Jim said.  
  
Leonard’s lips quirked into a grin of their own accord. He was about to respond with a quip about how he was really just helping Jim stay healthy by not letting him finish them, when he remembered Spock, remembered the clinic. Seeing Jim up close after ignoring him for weeks had driven all thoughts but Jim from his head, but reality came crashing back.  
  
He flicked the cigarette butt to the ground, aiming for nonchalance, and said, “What, Spock not helping you out?”  
  
Jim snapped his head up to glare at Leonard. His mercurial mood shifts had always intrigued and amazed Leonard, but now was not the time to be taken in by flashing bright blue eyes and cheeks just beginning to flush with anger.  
  
“Spock?” Jim bit out harshly. “This has all been about _Spock_?”  
  
Leonard looked away from Jim, focusing back on the far stretch of Thunder Road by the bridge. “There is no ‘this’,” he said.  
  
Jim strode forward angrily but stopped a yard away from the bonnet, still out of reach, but directly in Leonard’s line of sight now. “Bullshit there isn’t. You’ve been ignoring me for weeks.”  
  
“I’ve been busy,” Leonard said, knowing he sounded stupid, but unable to come up with anything else to say in the face of Jim’s anger.  
  
“Busy?” Jim asked loudly. “With what?” he continued, voice rising. “What could you possibly be busy with?”  
  
The words faintly echoed in the stillness of Thunder Road, and they stung like a bitch. Jim would occasionally suggest Leonard might like to start attending classes again, or try to tempt Leonard into asking about what they were learning in school, but mostly he just let Leonard be. Let him be the screw up that he was, while still making sure Leonard passed just enough to graduate high school.  
  
“Look, you’ve been busy with Spock, I’ve just been staying out of your way,” Leonard said finally.  
  
“What, I’m not allowed to have other friends now? What the fuck, Bones?” Jim spat.  
  
Leonard hated the part inside of him that glowed at hearing the stupid nickname from Jim again, the part of him that was so squishy and weak and just wanted to curl around Jim and forget the world.  
  
“Have friends, I don’t care,” Leonard said. “It’s not like we’re even friends, so do what you want.”  
  
Jim gaped for a second. “Not friends?” he asked. The anger wasn’t completely gone from his voice, but he mostly sounded confused now, which was stupid, because obviously they weren’t friends, Leonard knew that.  
  
“We fuck sometimes,” Leonard said, forcing himself to keep eye contact with Jim. He had to break this off completely and not leave himself room to slink back to Jim when he was feeling needy.  
  
“Just because we fuck doesn’t mean we aren’t friends,” Jim said, still sounding confused. “I’ve fucked lots of my friends.”  
  
Leonard chuckled mirthlessly. “Yes, well,” he said.  
  
“So we’re back to that, are we?” Jim asked, and the anger was back. “I’m a slut, right? I know that’s what they all say. And you’re what? A fucking saint? Too good for me?”  
  
“No –” Leonard started. He wasn’t trying to hurt Jim, or, well, he was, but not like this. Everything was going wrong.  
  
“So you’re just like all the rest, now?” Jim snapped. “I know the neighbourhood thinks I’m trashy and no good, but I thought you saw past that. I thought you saw _me_.” Jim’s voice broke on the last word, and a little piece of Leonard broke with it.  
  
“I did –”  
  
“I flirt, yeah, and _yeah_ I sleep with guys, but I don’t lie about it. I don’t steal anyone’s boyfriend, and _fuck you_ for thinking I’d do that to Uhura, Do you really think so little of me after all this time?” Jim looked devastated. His chest heaved and his fists were clenched.  
  
“I didn’t –”  
  
“You did,” Jim cut him off again. “I’ve lived my life and I’ve done some shit, and I know what people say but there are worse things I could do than go with a guy or two. And way worse things than spend time with a new friend and help him get settled in a new school in a whole new country, you complete asshole. You’ve got no right –”  
  
This time Leonard was the one to cut him off, jumping off the hood of his car and stepping into Jim’s space. “I _want_ the right,” he exploded.  
  
Jim rocked back on his heels, brows furrowing, but he didn’t give ground. He opened his mouth so say something, but Leonard didn’t let him.  
  
“Not the right to dictate your friends, goddamnit. The right to. . .” Leonard trailed off. He wanted nothing more than to say something stupid like ‘be your boyfriend’ or ‘care about you’, but he couldn’t.  
  
He hoped Jim would fill in the silence, like he so often did, but Jim didn’t. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared Leonard down, waiting, forcing Leonard to say the words.  
  
“Be with you,” Leonard finished, shoulders slumping.  
  
“But you _were_ with me,” Jim said, bemused.  
  
“No. I. But,” Leonard felt wrong-footed by Jim’s assertion and fumbled for the right words. “We were fuck buddies!” he exclaimed.  
  
“Yeah,” Jim said slowly. “Because that’s what you wanted.”  
  
“What I wanted?” Leonard asked, perplexed. Granted, his memories from the past two years weren’t crystal clear, but surely he’d remember saying he wanted to be Jim’s fuck buddy.  
  
“The first time we really talked, you shoved your tongue down my throat and we got off in the back of my new car,” Jim said. “Then you said, ‘This was fun. I’ll see you around, kid’ and walked away.”  
  
Shit. Had he? “I don’t remember it happening that way,” Leonard said slowly.  
  
“It’s fine, Bones. It’s always been fine. I’ve always been okay with what you can give me,” Jim said. He finally uncrossed his arms and reached out to lightly grip Leonard by the shoulders.  
  
Leonard felt like his world had been tilted on its axis. “You shouldn’t be comforting me,” he said, stepping back from Jim’s touch. “Not if I treated you that way.”  
  
“Your dad went into the hospital for the first time that week, Bones,” Jim said quietly.  
  
Leonard sucked in a breath. His memories around that time were fuzzy: a mix of doctors saying words he didn’t understand, and his mom crying, and him feeling helpless, and his dad telling him to be strong. He hadn’t realised that Jim and he had started fucking that same week. No wonder he didn’t remember what he said to Jim after.  
  
Leonard shook his head and said, “That’s no excuse.” He took another step back and slumped back to rest on the hood of his car again.  
  
Jim came over and sat down next to him, carefully not touching him. After a few minutes of silence, Jim asked, “So you didn’t want to be fuck buddies?”  
  
Leonard exhaled sharply. “I want to say no, but honestly, I’m not sure anymore. I know my memory hasn’t been the best lately, but it feels like you’re telling me brand new information that I apparently should have known. You. . . you’re okay with what I can give you?”  
  
“Yeah, Bones. Always. Well, except when what you can give me is you ignoring me, I guess.” Jim chuckled. There was a tinge of bitterness in the noise that made Leonard wince.  
  
“That’s pretty shit, Jim,” Leonard said, feeling like absolute garbage at the realisation that he was the one hurting Jim with his actions, not the other way around. “You shouldn’t take that from me.”  
  
Jim shrugged, his shoulder brushing Leonard’s lightly. “I take what I can get.”  
  
Leonard took a deep breath. It sounded like Jim was saying that he wanted more from Leonard, which was exactly what Leonard wanted. Was it really that easy? Leonard admitted that he wanted more and Jim agreed and that was it? Could he actually have what he wanted?  
  
He exhaled. He reached for Jim’s hand blindly. He asked, “And what if you could get more?”  
  
Jim’s fingers entwined with his and squeezed. “I would want that.”  
  
“With me?” Leonard had to be sure.  
  
Jim laughed, without the bitterness from before. “Yes, with you.”  
  
“You’d be my boyfriend?” Leonard asked. He gripped Jim’s hand tightly, but kept his gaze still forward.  
  
Jim reached out a hand to cup Leonard’s chin and tilt his face towards Jim. “Yes,” he said.  
  
Leonard let out a shaky breath. “Even after how I treated you? What I said?”  
  
“Yes,” Jim said again. “I’m not saying you’re off the hook. There’s going to be a lot of groveling, and I’d like you to consider seeing a counselor, but yes.”  
  
Leonard was ashamed to feel the prick of tears in his eyes. Overwhelmed, he couldn’t stop himself from bringing it up one last time, “How could you be okay with me after what I thought about you. That you were fucking Spock, that you were diseased– ”  
  
Jim barked out a harsh sounding laugh. “Diseased? Was that what they said about my trip to the health clinic? Motherfucking gossips.”  
  
Leonard winced. He knew he shouldn’t ask. He should just trust Jim. He should just let this go and accept Jim’s forgiveness. That’s what a sane person would do. Without his brain’s permission his mouth opened and he asked, “You aren’t, are you?”  
  
A strangled yelling sound ripped from Jim’s throat and his fists clenched.  
  
Leonard tensed at the sound. Jim got into fights more often than Leonard would like, but he’d never hit Leonard. Calling him a diseased whore would put an end to that reprieve though, he was sure.  
  
But instead of hitting him, Jim gritted out, “I am _not_ diseased. I did get checked, but that’s just common sense. Nothing came up.”  
  
“Okay,” Leonard said cautiously, not wanting to anger Jim further. “I’m sorry I asked.”  
  
Jim heaved a sigh. It didn’t look like his anger was totally gone, but he wasn’t glaring at Leonard anymore, which was a good sign. He was glaring out at the horizon and seemed to be waging a silent war in his head.  
  
“Don’t be sorry,” Jim said, finally. “I’m not angry with you, really. I’m angry at your brain for misinterpreting things.”  
  
What did that mean? Before he could ask, though, Jim continued.  
  
“It’s not your fault, I know that. God, I read so many fucking books at the library on this grief shit. I wanted to understand, and I think I do, a bit, but that doesn’t stop it from being fucking infuriating that you don’t see what I see. That what we have is amazing. That’s there’s never been a threat to what we have, even when I was fucking other guys. That you can _trust_ me.”  
  
“I do,” Leonard said. He felt small and humbled by Jim’s words.  
  
“You don’t, really,” Jim said, with a very small and sad quirk to his lips. “And I get that. You’re so fucked up over your dad that you don’t trust anyone. It has to do with losing faith in the world, not believing that good things happen, and the only way to stop that is to force you to change your thoughts and behaviours around that. That’s what the books say, anyway.” Jim trailed off with a slightly embarrassed shrug.  
  
Leonard’s voice was choked with emotion when he asked, “You researched for me?”  
  
“Of course I did, don’t be stupid,” Jim snapped, then he seemed to reconsider and quickly added, “I mean, you’re not stupid. Well, you were stupid about not trusting me, but that wasn’t really your fault for being stupid, it’s was your stupid brain’s fault, but oh, fuck, I give up.”  
  
Leonard chuckled wetly at the ridiculousness that was Jim catching himself up in a ramble.  
  
Leonard poked Jim in the thigh to make him look at him. “Thank you for researching, Jim.”  
  
Jim rolled his eyes and sounded put upon, “You’re welcome, Bones.”  
  
The normalness of the moment seemed somehow jarring after the emotional outpouring, and Leonard sat quietly for a moment, soaking it in.  
  
“Jim,” Leonard said quietly. He was reluctant to break the silence but knew he needed to apologise again.  
  
“Bones,” Jim said, just as quietly. He put a reassuring hand on Leonard’s thigh and gave it a squeeze.  
  
“I’m sorry I was such an idiot,” Leonard said.  
  
“You really were,” Jim agreed. He shifted so that he was sitting sideways on the hood, facing Leonard, and moved his hand from Leonard’s thigh to hook his fingers through Leonard’s belt loop. Leonard missed the feeling of them on his thigh immediately.  
  
“I shouldn’t have believed the rumours,” Leonard said. “I know you better than that.”  
  
“You do,” Jim smiled.  
  
A pleased blush appeared high on Jim’s cheeks at Leonard’s simple statement, and Leonard wanted to see more of it. He angled himself towards Jim more fully and cautiously raised his hand to cup the back of Jim’s head. He was still a bit afraid that his touch would be knocked away, but Jim relaxed back into the touch and something settled in Leonard’s stomach.  
  
“Have we talked enough?” Leonard asked, eyes flicking from Jim’s eyes to his lips and back.  
  
Jim let out a delighted laugh. “Yes,” he said fervently as he leaned in to capture Leonard’s lips in a bruising kiss.  
  
Leonard knew the discussion wasn’t anywhere close to being finished, but it was enough for now. Enough to know that they were on the same page, and that they had a plan, vague though it was, for the future. Trusting Jim, going to counseling, being boyfriends. It was more than enough for now.  
  
Their tongues slid slickly against each other for long moments, while their hands wandered across chests and hips.  
  
Leonard felt like he might burst with how much he wanted Jim, his arousal slamming into him fast and hard. Weeks without touching Jim had made him needy and he drank in Jim’s quiet moans like fresh lemonade on a hot day. He reached out and grasped Jim by the hips to pull him onto his lap.  
  
Jim gasped out a laugh at the manhandling and dragged his lips wetly from Leonard’s mouth to nibble at the spot behind his ear that never failed to go straight to his cock.  
  
Leonard thrust up to grind against Jim as best he could from this position. It wasn’t enough. The maelstrom of emotions still tumbling inside Leonard made him feel like a ball of electricity, all sparks and flicks with no outlet.  
  
For the first time in a long while, though, Leonard didn’t just want to mute his feelings with sex. He actually wanted to feel them. He wanted to wrap himself up in the feeling of Jim’s concern and his care. He wanted to shout his happiness to the world that this amazing boy thought he was good enough to be his boyfriend. He wanted to bask in the joy of Jim’s forgiveness. He wanted to scream in relief that Jim knew what was going on with him more than Leonard did himself. He wanted to cry, he wanted to yell, he wanted to never stop smiling, he wanted. . . .  
  
“Will you fuck me?” Leonard asked suddenly.  
  
Jim’s head whipped up and his hands immediately stopped their movements, one stilling on a still tweaked nipple and the other halfway done pulling the zipper down on Leonard’s jeans.  
  
“Here?” Jim asked, smile wide. “You dirty dog. Do you have any stuff?”  
  
“Maybe?” Leonard asked. He hadn’t thought through his request, just went with the impulse because rubbing off against Jim hadn’t been enough.  
  
Jim laughed. He slid back off Leonard’s lap to stand in front of him. “I’ve got some in my car. Get your pants down and spread ‘em,” He said lowly with a dark glint in his eyes.  
  
Leonard inhaled sharply. He would never get over Jim’s quick shifts in mood: playful one moment, intensely hot and dark the next. His cock twitched in his pants.  
  
As Jim ran over to his car, Leonard stood up and finished unzipping his jeans while he contemplated the best position to take. His stingray was a gorgeous car, but the low front of the hood wasn’t going to work for this, he’d have to arrange himself sideways over the hood, with his feet planted by the wheel.  
  
Plan decided, he sauntered around to the side of his car and pushed down his jeans and briefs to his ankles before bending at the waist to plant his hands on the hood.  
  
He heard Jim gasp as the sound of his running feet slowed to a stop behind Leonard.  
  
Leonard glanced over his shoulder and threw Jim a grin before slowly lowering his chest to the hood, leg spread as wide as he could with his jeans hindering his movements.  
  
“F-f-fuck,” Jim stuttered. He cupped Leonard’s ass in both hands and squeezed gently before he dragged the fingers of one hand lightly up Leonard’s crack.  
  
Leonard shivered and his cock leaked a bit against the side of the car. He pushed his ass out towards Jim, seeking more of his touch.  
  
Jim repeated the motion again, a soft squeeze and then a firmer drag of his fingers over Leonard’s hole, and again.  
  
“Please,” Leonard moaned. It wasn’t enough.  
  
“I’ve got you,” Jim said. His fingers returned, wet this time, and continued to rub around the outside of Leonard’s hole.  
  
He felt his hole fluttering at the touch, and he pushed back into Jim’s fingers, desperate for me.  
  
Jim brought a hand up to push Leonard gently back onto the hood and dipped a fingertip inside of Leonard as soon as he was settled.  
  
“More,” Leonard demanded. It still wasn’t enough.  
  
Jim liked teasing Leonard. Liked drawing out his fingering till he was a shaking and quivering mess, till the only thing he could think about was the slow drag of Jim’s knuckles as they pumped incessantly in and out. But the fact that they were out in the open made Jim speed up.  
  
Jim eased his finger inside Leonard, and after only a moment added another.  
  
Leonard gasped at the sudden fullness and as he adjusted, he shifted his hips up to rock between Jim’s restraining hand and the fingers stretching him out.  
  
Jim let him ride his fingers until he was comfortable and settled back down flat against the car’s hood.  
  
“You ready?” Jim asked. His voice sounded strained and Leonard could picture the look of concentration on his face that he always got when he prepped Leonard. And, wasn’t that funny, Leonard thought, how he hadn’t realised how much intense care and dedication Jim showed for him every time they fucked.  
  
“Yes,” Leonard said, feeling breathless from more than just Jim’s fingers stretching him.  
  
The fingers in Leonard’s ass withdrew quickly but he only felt empty for a moment before the head of Jim’s cock pressed against his hole.  
  
Leonard concentrated on relaxing enough to let Jim in after so little prep, but nothing happened. Jim didn’t move.  
  
“I’ve got a condom on,” Jim said. He sounded oddly defensive. Why was he defensive?  
  
“Okay?” Leonard asked, confused.  
  
“Because y’know. . .” Jim trailed off.  
  
It clicked all of a sudden. The damn chlamydia rumour. “Jim, I don’t care, just _fuck_ me already,” Leonard growled.  
  
He punctuated his demand with a slam of his hands against the hood, ready to push himself up and fucking mount Jim himself if he kept having problems.  
  
“Alright, alright,” Jim said, sounding much more relaxed now. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”  
  
“Don’t get _your_ panties – ” Leonard broke off his grumbled reply with a sharp gasp as Jim’s cock suddenly split him open.  
  
Jim didn’t give him time to adjust. He just drew his cock out and slammed it back in quickly, settling into a rough and fast pace.  
  
Leonard’s blood was singing as it raced through his veins. Everything was too much and not enough all at once. Jim’s thrusts slammed Leonard’s hip bones into the car over and over, they rocked him up onto his toes, they forced his hands to slide further and further across the hood, and Leonard loved every second. Every thrust was a reminder that Jim was here, that he came after him, that he knew exactly where Leonard would be because he _knows_ _Leonard_. This wasn’t a fuck to forget, it was a fuck to remember. And Leonard would.  
  
The conviction he felt made his toes curl and he tilted his hips up just that bit more to meet Jim’s thrusts. The next time Jim’s cock pressed inside of him it nailed his prostate and Leonard yelled.  
  
His voice echoed over the stillness of Thunder Road and without warning he came, cock twitching and leaking where it was trapped against his car.  
  
“Fucking hell, Bones, did you just,” Jim gasped as the aftershocks of Leonard’s orgasm tightened around him. “Untouched?”  
  
Leonard wanted to reply with something smartass, but his brain was soup. Happy, blissed out soup. All he could manage was a deep and drawn-out, “Jim.”  
  
“Shit, damn, _fuck_!” Jim panted as his thrusts sped up. His grip on Leonard’s hips tightened and his nails bit into Leonard’s skin. He came with a growl which he buried into the fabric of Leonard’s shirt, between his shoulder blades.  
  
He stayed there, panting, body slumped over Leonard’s and cock still twitching inside him. He slowly uncurled his fingers and soothed them gently over the marks he left on Leonard’s hips.  
  
“Sorry,” he said lowly.  
  
Leonard reached his hands back to grasp Jim’s apologetic fingers. He held them tightly and didn’t say anything. Enough apologies and absolutions had been said today already.  
  
Soon they would have to get up, get dressed, and leave this place. But for now, Leonard had Jim, and Jim had him, here on Thunder Road. And that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Song lyrics shamelessly stolen from Grease.


End file.
